Sydney Part I

This was (in hindsight) quite amusing. I told Cam I'd be happy to go to Syd and celebrate my confirmation, but it was on the condition that I could not pay more than $300 for tickets. Unforch, the lateness of plans meant that I couldn't get them for that price, so he very kindly sacrificed some of his freq. flyer points and *boom!* I had tickets to fly up at 7:15pm Friday, arriving in Syd at 8:45pm. There was a frantic call around for accom when I discovered that Pooky's mum was in town for CNY and I therefore could not stay with her as usual. To my eternal gratitude, a lot of ppl came through with offers that I could sleep on their floors/couches, and with great thanks to Miss Roxy, I ended up staying with Miss Fei in Chatswood.

A suitably large number of people were informed of my impending arrival and I rocked up to the airport at 5:45pm and went straight to the gate as Cam had done the online check-in thing. So imagine my puzzlement when the gate on the boarding pass did not have our flight listed. Nor was it listed on the Departures monitor. From here, imagine my horror when, after enquiring *What gives?* from the desk attendant, I was informed that the flight booked was for 7:15AM!!!! While phoning Cam in horror, the attendant managed to find us tickets for an earlier flight (wooh!) and we arrived in Syd about an hour earlier than expected.

I had planned to meet up with Miss Pooky and My Childe for drinks, I discovered that Pooky was having dinner with her mum, whilst my son was on Oxford St - somewhere I didn't really want to venture with my suitcase *shudder*. So my little suitcase and I met up again with Cam, Lily and Jane for dinner at Chinta Ria in Cockle Bay. I didn't take a pic of the food (which was quite tasty), but I did manage to get a shot of the Big Buddha you meet when you enter. He is a happy fellow indeed.

After dinner I stumbled to Town Hall and made my way to Chatswood and slept in preparation for a big Saturday.